Where to Find D.C.'s Best Matchbooks

Eater

4 days ago

If you went to a trendy restaurant and didn't bring home a cute matchbook souvenir, did you really go there?
Restaurant and bar matchbox sets are the hot new collectibles du jour — just ask Angie, a 20-something D.C.-based influencer known online as @phoebeindc. She's built a base of tens of thousands of social media followers by sharing her vintage-y home decor, including a growing collection of matchbooks. (She even has one with her namesake, thanks to the new West End bistro Bar Angie.)
'Collecting matchbooks is part of a larger trend that is actively rejecting the lifeless, minimal decor that has been in style for the last decade and a half,' Angie tells Eater. 'I think people really want their homes to have personal touches and warmth, and matchbooks are one small way to achieve that.'
The practice of restaurants using matchbooks to promote their brands dates back to the early 1900s — a time when the need for a mechanism to light a cigarette was far more common than it is now. They largely fell out of style when smoking did, but have made a resurgence in the past few years as a trendy collectible to pick up from the host stand after a meal.
Though matchbooks have become a nostalgic relic of restaurants past, it isn't primarily the older restaurant patrons who are eager to pick one up on their way out the door — it's the 20- and 30-something crowds, Farid Azouri, co-founder of DC's Residents Cafe and Bar and River Club, tells Eater DC. Call it an extension of the throwback trends that also made vinyl records, early 2000s digital cameras, and even deviled eggs cool again.
'Most people my age that I know are actively trying to reduce our screen time because we recognize how addictive our phones are,' Angie says. 'When I see a matchbook in my home, I can relive that memory of a night when I went out with my friends or my husband and had an amazing meal and laughed around the table for hours, no screen time required.'
And when a restaurant closes, it becomes all the more special to have a limited-edition keepsake. Angie frequently uses the matches she collects at Barcelona Wine Bar, but the bright pink matchbox from Bar Spero, downtown's upscale Basque restaurant that shut down last year, is a relic that will remain untouched.
'It's like an art piece,' says Victoria Simmerling, vice president of development at Scale Hospitality, which owns Reynold's, a new bar in Dupont Circle, along with hotel Sixty DC's anchor restaurant Casamara. 'It's a great conversation starter. It makes you remember the place after.'
Matchbooks aren't just a cute detail added at the last minute. Newer spots are now thinking about utilizing matchbooks as an extension of their marketing.
The art of a restaurant matchbook is finding ways to make the tiny little fire-starters match (no pun intended) the brand's vibe, be it through unique shapes, sizes, colors and other creative design choices. Capitol Hill's award-winning Mexican spot Pascual offers a matchbook with an inscription inside quoting an excerpt from the poem 'Piedra Solar' by Nobel Prize-winning Mexican poet Octavio Paz. Le Diplomate's matchboxes have an eye-catching yellow and red cover featuring the brasserie's logo and matching red-tipped matches inside. River Club even has some giant, smartphone-sized boxes that they handed out at their opening and to some select VIP guests.
And while quality of the actual matches isn't unimportant, several owners have expressed the importance of aesthetics over everything else.
'We did not cut any corners [in developing River Club], especially in terms of the design, ingredients we use, even the sound system,' says Azouri. 'We decided when we're going to offer something, we're not going to go for the cheap option.'
Twenty-five cents per matchbox might not sound a lot, but when you order 50,000 of them, as River Club did, suddenly you're looking at a $12,500 price tag — and that's not including the cost of outsourcing the design. River Club hired Lillian Ling, the creative director and founder of branding studio Stray Rabbit, who's also worked with The Dabney, All Purpose, Lucky Danger, Any Day Now, Pineapple & Pearls, and Grazie Nonna.
But in the grand scheme of things, that's a small price to pay considering their reach.
'Fifty thousand people eventually will have a little branded item in their home. It is a great marking tool,' Azouri says.
Reynold's brought on Toronto-based branding agency One Method, which designed everything from the logo on the matchbook cover to the unique shape of the matches and the clever inscriptions on each match.
'We match the matchbox to the vibe of the place,' Simmerling says. Reynold's is named after Maria Reynolds, who Hamilton fans may recognize as the woman who had an affair with Alexander Hamilton. Salacious inscriptions on each match vary from, 'To love is to burn, to be on fire' to 'I prefer my martini filthy.'
'With every strike, there's a new, fun thing to read,' Simmerling says. 'Our tagline is 'A legacy of notorious rendezvous,' so we're having a bit of fun with that.'
The free branding benefits go beyond the possibility of noticing a cool matchbook on a friend's coffee table. Influencers make viral videos sharing where locals — and those visiting — can boost their own collections.
'People are actually going out of their way to eat and drink at places where they know they can get a matchbook,' says Angie.
Ready to start (or continue to build) your own local matchbook stash? The following 38 D.C. spots are great places to start. But keep in mind, some places don't immediately restock after running out. We recommend calling ahead to check on availability. Republic Cantina Cordelia Fishbar Pastis Minetta Tavern Sid Gold's Request Room Karravaan Franklin Hall Maydan Osteria Mozza Fitzgerald's Sequoia River Club Madam's Organ No Goodbyes Balos Estiatorio Hank's Oyster Bar Doyle Reynold's The Dabney The Hamilton La Grande Boucherie Old Ebbitt Grill OKPB The Dubliner Pineapple and Pearls Rose's Luxury La Famosa Royal Sands Social Club Elmina Jane Jane Le Diplomate Barcelona Wine Bar Bar Angie Officina Tiki TNT La Betty Eighteenth Street Lounge Pascual See More: